Put Me Back Together Again
by ActuallyFace
Summary: Karkat, a Knight of high skill and seemingly always lonely, meets the local lawmaker and her huntress friend after seeing them perform together at black-market play, defying the kingdom's strict policy against speaking out. The three become friends and life goes on, until the Duke comes to visit and things begin to fall apart.


Getting through the busy streets of Aftrious was difficult enough when Karkat was so short, but the fact that it was between the time that day shops closed and night shops opened made it even worse. The streets were full of trolls and humans alike, trolls shoving along with every ounce of strength they could muster, and the humans darting and dodging between them and fitting into every open space before Karkat had the chance to slip by. He wasn't quite strong enough to move anybody else, nor was he as good at fitting and darting as the humans were. He was actually very tempted to unsheathe the sword that hid under his cloak to clear a path of his own, but that would do him no good beyond getting himself executed, fired, or worse for showing his 'respectable' face in such a dirty, unlawful place.

A play would be starting in perhaps a half of an hour, and Karkat was expected there by his sort of-friend, the Lord of this city's personal Mage. The troll had insisted that he had some kind of access to the afterparty in which they could meet all of the actors, and Karkat had agreed to go only because he felt that it would be the only way to get the other off of his back about this Black Market play stuff. Plus... well, it couldn't hurt to meet a couple of people, right? Karkat was a Knight, but he wasn't exactly popular. Socializing might be... okay, for a while.

Eventually, Karkat made it through the sweaty pit of bodies and into a couple of the less-populated alleys, which weren't entirely pleasant. The place reeked of waste and death to an extent much further than any of the regular streets, and Karkat had to hold his nose until he found the instructed hole in the wall and emerged into a dimly-lit room, already crowded with people, and with a play halfway through the beginning happening at the front. It took several more minutes and a lot of harsh whispering to find and sit down next to Sollux, who scowled at him in the soft yellow light and pointed towards the front of the room, as if Karkat hadn't yet noticed the play.

He hated to admit it, but his friend's shitty play was... actually not that shitty. Most plays sucked up to the Empress and rhymed the whole way through, but this one moved with a pleasant fluidity, and the actors weren't afraid to show true, relateable emotions and speak out against what they knew was wrong. The redblood found himself enjoying it more that he had expected he might, and entirely caught up in the complex story and the way the characters seemed impossibly real. Of course, the props and costumes themselves weren't that great, but it didn't matter as far as Karkat was concerned. All that mattered was that he almost didn't feel alone when he was watching, and that everything felt... easy.

The show was over far too soon, and then Sollux was dragging Karkat backstage for the meeting he had promised. The Knight took a moment to gather his wits and come back out of the play, then shook the other off and followed on his own two feet. The Mage appeared annoyed, but didn't say anything until they slipped behind the curtains on the stage and entered a large room, where actors were already chatting with a few members of the audience. Karkat barely had time to pull his grey hood down before Sollux was dragging him off again to talk to one of the lead roles; a voluptuous woman in a dragon-themed dress. She stood talking to a much shorter, slimer girl, who had played one of her maids and was wearing a slightly cat-esque dress (the whole premise of the show revolved around form-changing).

"Ladieth." Sollux lisped with attempted suavity, and the two turned, the shorter grinning and the taller raising her eyebrows. Karkat had to blink away wide eyes when he recognized the dragon-themed troll as the head of the local lawkeeping force.

"Oh look, Neppy, the party has arrived." The taller commented, "Who's your friend, Sollux?"

"You don't recognize me? I mean, I know you're blind, but did you lose your sense of smell, too? Get a grip, Pyrope." Karkat retorted, taking off his cloak as he did. It was growing much too warm to wear that old thing anyways, and revealing his sword here wouldn't be a problem when Terezi was about the highest lawful authority around, excluding the Knights and the Aftrious' Lord.

"Karkat, what are you doing here?" She laughed in that squeaky voice of her's.

"You know her?" Sollux questioned, thin eyebrows arching high.

"I'm a Knight, shitsponge. Of course I know the city's Lawkeeper." Sollux only shrugged.

"A Knight? Furezi, you never told me you know knights." The smaller girl said with another grin, and pushed her long, wavy hair behind her ear.

"I work with the few in this city on a daily basis!" Terezi protested.

"You've never even told me about fur work at all!" She retorted with a false pout, crossing her arms.

The chatting went on for quite a while, before Sollux grew tired of standing around and invited the two out to a local pub with Karkat and himself, to which they happily agreed. After some heavy drinking and much laughter, which made Karkat feel warm, unusually happy, and much at home, they decided to disperse.

As the others were leaving, Nepeta invited Karkat to their next performance the following night. He agreed, and slid his cloak back on as he jogged out the door to catch up to Sollux, on their way back to the Lord Afton's hall and their own comfortable quarters.


End file.
